Rogers Media uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. Learn more or change your cookie preferences. Rogers Media supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. By continuing to use our service, you agree to our use of cookies.

We use cookies (why?) You can change cookie preferences. Continued site use signifies consent.

Search for missing Whitby man will be scaled back Thursday night

The search for a missing Whitby man will be scaled back on Thursday night even though the whereabouts of Jeffrey Boucher remain a mystery, Durham regional police say.

Boucher, 52, was last seen by his family on Sunday evening and reported missing by family members who say he didn’t return from his morning jog or go to work as a teacher at Bowmanville High School.

“We don’t know where he’s gone or why or how he is,” Sgt. Nancy van Rooy said at a news conference Thursday..

“We know he’s a man of routine…we believe he stepped out on Monday morning for his run and he didn’t come back,” she said.

If he has been outside for that long, van Rooy said, “the odds are not in his favour.”

There are no new developments, she said. Police have searched a radius of 15-20 kilometres from Boucher’s home area and will expand the search area in all directions Thursday morning before scaling back the search later in the day. While the search will come to an end at some point, she said the investigation “will remain active until we find Mr. Boucher.”

Boucher didn’t show up for school on Monday. He left his wallet and keys at home. This is not like him, she said.

“We hope, perhaps, he has walked away for his own reasons…If he himself is listening, we’d like to have closure here,” she said.

Boucher has a wife and two daughters, none of whom have heard from him since his disappearance.

“They have been very co-operative and are of course very concerned,” van Rooy said.

Earlier in the week, van Rooy said that since he went missing Boucher has not left an electronic footprint. She said that the Canada Border Services Agency is involved and is aware he has a passport, and banks have also been notified of his disappearance.

Boucher is described as white, six-feet tall, 180 pounds with grey-and-white short hair.